JB - Product Analysis #2

Music Video Analysis #2 – Blazin’ Squad ‘Lets Start Again’


Blazin’ Squad’s Video for ‘Let’s start again’ is very urban and contemporary when looking at typical forms and conventions of boy band music videos in the pop genre. The Boy band does display typical conventions, and characteristics of the genre, but they use an urban base for their video which enables them to take away the cheesiness of the genre. The music video is a performance based one and starts with a series of establishing shots on the artists, and also shows us the location in Tokyo, Japan. The notion of looking is used a number of times throughout the video where the artists look at the camera towards the audience, for example when the second artist enters into his verse coming up the steps. This shows us that they are singing towards the audience, trying to create a connection and relationship with their fans. This is an emblematic convention in pop genre videos, particularly performance based, because it is all about conveying to the audience the star persona of the artist and creating that bond. A link is shown between the lyrics and the visuals, mainly through the main chorus ‘Let’s start again’ in which the boy band are literally walking through the city in despair as if they are lost without their love. The lyrics “you don’t see what I see, girl’ also relates to the visuals which connotes the band are always in different cities just leaving their girlfriends at home. This shows examples of illustration and also there is a link with the time of the beat and the time of the cutting and editing. The very first shot is defiantly showing a link between the visuals and the lyrics also as it shows the passing of time. The simple image of a clock brings many connotations, most of which relate to the songs lyrics. This video combines both performance and very slight narrative, adding to their grand narrative/meta narrative, and yet with the street dancers in the video this makes it, to some extent, post modern, combining both advertising and art for the band to sell their track. This is used, according to Emap’s research on music video audiences, for both ambient viewers and focused viewers, where subconsciously the audience become attracted to the video and song, resulting in hopefully some sort of purchase of the track or more tracks from the same band. The music video also helps give viewers the opportunity to get to know their artists more, and build on that personal bond.

Visual techniques are used throughout the video through the range of shots, shot sizes and shot angles, and also through lighting. Straight from the beginning with the establishing shots we gain the location through shots of Japanese shop fronts, traffic lights, and pedestrian crossings, crowds of people, car lights, and street lights. These street lights signify an urban feel, and the traffic signifies a busy street which can be related further to connote the busy lifestyle that the boy band leads. Camera movement is also used in the first establishing shots and a slight handi-cam movement is used as the band artist walks away. Another visual technique is the way that the camera moves into and out of focus creating this blur effect. A common convention of boy band music videos is to have the camera tracking towards and away from the artists. By adding on the blur, or out of focus effect it creates a much more atmospheric feel, giving connotations that seem more emotional and this anchors the genre of music whereby the common theme throughout the song is ‘love’. A series of close up shots, medium long shots and medium shots in the taxi are used, making the location seem accessible for the audience, and creating a feel that we as the audience are actually perhaps in the city or with them in the taxi. This suggestion of the band in the taxi actually makes the band seem more like everyday people because it makes them seem like typical British lads, as oppose to rich boys that go everywhere in a limo. The quick paced editing anchors this camera work, by moving with the music, and also there is more post production editing with the colour wash that denotes the night life that they live as boy band members. In certain points in the video we see use of intertextuality and references to popular culture with the use of the street dancers, underground tube stations and mainly the clothes that they wear which are mainstream from shops such as Top man – which may show possible star motifs and iconography such as the necklace of one of the members.

The location chosen by the production team is one that definitely enhances the boys meta-narrative. The location shows the three English boys, making it internationally. They are showing to the audience that they are becoming increasingly popular throughout the international scene, perhaps more than they are in England. The group were originally a 10 member boy band, who concentrated mainly on the UK hip hop scene. The video shows just three of them continuing in the band. However, rather than choosing an obvious over seas location, such as the United States, the band chose one that is never really seen in music videos - Tokyo, Japan. This tells us that the video has its own originality and creativeness, which may add to certain star motifs of the members.
This whole ideology of what the slight narrative is trying to convey is shown through the mise en scene of the band members. The clothes the band where are very mainstream which tells us that they want to be seen as everyday normal characters. This makes the band seem both extraordinary and ordinary, one of Richard Dyers key paradoxes. Other mise en scene such as the shops that we see the boy band drive past in the taxi seems very tourist like, which connotes that they are like any other tourist when they travel to different countries and also the underground tube station emphasises the type of urban genre they have and how they still want to be known as a less mainstream boy band and more of a grime boy band. Other mise en scene such as the coffee cart in the surroundings of one of the locations give this implication of ‘late night’ and tells the audience that they do stay up late, maybe because they are bothered, worried or disturbed by the love in the theme of the song. This is anchored by the other mise en scene such as late night take away stalls and the vacant tube station.

In the video we see dominant ideologies of the working class background of the boys, being reinforced, however challenged in the sense that they choose to keep that appearance in their video. They could have gone all out and sat in limo’s, instead of taxi’s and gone to posh restaurants instead of small take away stalls and vending machines, but instead they wanted to show the audience their true nature. They want to be seen as people that work hard for what they achieve and they certainly achieve the two paradoxes of Richard Dyers theory. Richard Dyer said that the term ‘stardom’ all came down to a set of semi-mythological meanings containing different values of stardom. Blazin’ Squad achieve some of these by showing, international success, sexual magnetism, youth, and some rebellion. Dyer also talks about what roles the stars play, and he says that they are commodities of the business, and stars depend on subsidiary media. He says that ‘the star image is incoherent’ based upon two key paradoxes. The first being a star must be both ordinary and extra-ordinary and the second being the star must be both present and absent to its audience. This video is a great example of showing both these qualities of a ‘Star’ as the location and mise en scene they have chosen all adds up to give this overall representation.

This music video product, would most certainly be targeted towards young females much like most boy band genre products. The age range being from young teenagers from the age of 10 till possible some older people in the age of about 18-21. The product would be sold in all worldwide mainstream shops as oppose to niche market shops, and would be in shops such as HMV and shown on music channels for example KISS, MTV Base, Channel AKA, and FLAVA.